City Commissioner Randy Leonard christens Portland's second public loo

Stuart Oishi of Randy Leonard's office conducts the first flush of the city's second public loo Wednesday. Janie Har/The Oregonian

Portland city commissioner Randy Leonard christened the city’s second public loo on Wednesday, this one at Waterfront Park at Southwest Taylor and Southwest Naito Parkway.

The 24-hour solar powered potty is sleek and gray with a push-button faucet on the outside and slats on the bottom so police can make sure there’s only one person in there at a time.

“If they see four legs in there, that’s two legs too many,” said Leonard at the lunchtime gathering, attended by his office and reporters.

The city installed its first 24-hour solar-powered loo in late 2008, on Northwest Glisan Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Old Town.

Wednesday’s loo is the first of three planned for this year. The third toilet also will be in Waterfront Park, near Saturday Market at Southwest Ash Street and Naito Parkway.

The one drawing the most controversy, however, is a proposed public toilet in the Pearl District, at Northwest 11th Avenue and Kearney Street near Jamison Square that official neighborhood officials want but that some residents find alarming.

The loos cost about $60,000 apiece. The money for the loos comes from the city’s general fund and is administered by the Portland Water Bureau, whose mission of providing excellent drinking water has little to do with public flushing.

But that’s because Leonard is passionate about the issue. He thinks it’s a disgrace that there aren’t more public options in public spaces for people — whether they are homeless or from the West Hills — to relieve themselves.

“The Portland Loos are meant to be a unique solution to a universal problem. Everyone should have somewhere to take care of business with a little privacy and a little dignity,” he said in a statement.

Stuart Oishi of Leonard’s staff had the honors of demonstrating the first flush. The unit has heat tape to keep the water pipes from freezing when the temperature dips.